The Boston Crimson Sox felt an elevated stage of optimism at spring coaching because the group welcomed newcomer Alex Bregman on Sunday.
Boston landed the two-time World Collection champion on a three-year, $120 million settlement in free company. Bregman’s right-handed bat and All-Star caliber standing match the most important field left unchecked on the entrance workplace’s want checklist till final week.
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Bregman’s arrival was one thing that Crimson Sox supervisor Alex Cora pulled for months in the past, however now everybody else is feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed beneath the sunshine in Fort Myers, Fla., too.
“Proper now, it feels nice,” Crimson Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy mentioned Sunday, as seen on NESN. “We’re excited however we obtained a variety of work to do.”
Kennedy added: “The final couple of years, there was an unimaginable optimism in that clubhouse and we didn’t get there. Coming off the ’21 season, it’s onerous to recollect. We thought we have been gonna be proper there within the combine in 2022 and a few accidents, and it hasn’t come collectively. Nevertheless it’s not as if there wasn’t that want or that effort to win the final couple of seasons.”
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It’s been 4 years for the reason that Crimson Sox final secured a playoff look, making the previous couple of seasons tough for the fan base. Boston flirted with rivalry, even dipping its toe within the American League wild-card hunt this previous season, but it surely wasn’t sufficient. Accidents, defensive shortcomings, and an general lack of depth caught up with the franchise and anchored the clubhouse from the playoff image.
Kennedy, in efforts with Crimson Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow, Cora and the remainder of the entrance workplace/possession group, vowed to flip the change. And whereas it’s one factor to speak, Boston backed its phrases with actions.
The Crimson Sox invested within the Juan Soto sweepstakes, spending hours assembly with the then-free agent famous person and prolonged a suggestion reportedly within the $700 million ballpark. Boston additionally attacked the pitching market, buying and selling 4 prospects for starter Garrett Crochet whereas additionally signing Walker Buehler, Patrick Sandoval and Aroldis Chapman.
That also left the necessity for a right-handed bat on the desk, nonetheless. Kennedy and firm weren’t content material with ending the offseason as-is, regardless of the a number of enhancements made to the workforce’s roster.
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“From that second of mid-December via Wednesday evening, there was not sooner or later that John (Henry), Tom (Werner), Mike Gordon, myself, Theo (Epstein), Bres, AC, weren’t locked in on a telephone name, a Zoom name, a WhatsApp chain, speaking about Alex Bregman,” Kennedy mentioned. “Seven days every week. Actually, each single day. … A really smart man as soon as instructed me, ‘One thing is price what somebody is prepared to pay for it.’”
Boston opened up its wallets and put Bregman in a Crimson Sox uniform, however as Kennedy steered, the job nonetheless isn’t completed. The workforce will proceed to reconvene, get warmed up and endure its spring coaching camp in preparation for Opening Day towards the Texas Rangers, which is lower than six weeks away.
